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BSA truce ends

By Stephen Whitford, ITWeb contributor
Johannesburg, 09 Jun 2004

The Business Software Alliance`s (BSA`s) truce on software piracy ended last week with 215 companies legalising pirated or unlicensed software. The BSA says 188 companies that failed to register could now face investigation.

Andrew Lindstr"om, BSA chairman, says the four-month truce campaign offered companies a once-off opportunity to review their software and acquire the necessary licences needed to operate lawfully without facing penalties.

"We are pleased that 215 companies took the opportunity to get their house in order and adopt good software asset management practices. The companies that registered ran unlicensed software on over 9 000 desktop PCs," he says.

Lindstr"om says during the truce, 188 companies were reported for alleged software piracy and now face investigation. "None of these companies registered to clean up during the four-month window period offered by the BSA. It is now business as usual. We will be investigating these companies and will be taking legal action where evidence of unlicensed software is found," he says.

The BSA says there are still companies that registered for the truce but have not filed their software compliance statements with the BSA to retain exemption. Lindstr"om called on the businesses to file the statements, which say they have checked their software and taken the necessary steps towards compliance.

In addition to the companies that received amnesty and those that registered, but did not complete the process, Lindstr"om says the BSA believes there are thousands of other businesses that quietly cleaned up unlicensed software without registering.

"A number of software retailers reported a spike in sales during the BSA truce and we can conclude from the high number of hotline calls that companies took note of this campaign," he says.

Related stories:
BSA extends software amnesty
BSA offers 90-day amnesty

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